Black or Red Bellied?

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LB 54;595324; said:
Red belly piranaha's are pussys. they are always hidding. you could watch them for hours until they finally attack a gold fish. a black piranha is the meanest one. the will go right after the gold fish. they are so agressive they can have to be kept alone because they will eat each other.
hold up man my rb aunt pussy's!! they r babies and swim around my tank , a lil skitish, but not a pussy by far, u gonna piss people off with that comment!!
 
I have owned both and enjoyed my RBP's way more. They grow wayyyyy faster. Rhom's grow very, very slow and for the most part act the same as Reds. Most rhom's will not even eat in front of people for a while. Reds in a group go into a frenzy if they are hungry.
 
mr36st;625702; said:
hold up man my rb aunt pussy's!! they r babies and swim around my tank , a lil skitish, but not a pussy by far, u gonna piss people off with that comment!!

This dude obviously doesn't know what he is talking about. To call any fish a pussy is just completely ignorant. The black rhom's I have seen hide way more than a shoal of reds.
 
not that blacks dont like to be 2gether. they're just more territorial and need way more space. in nature, blacks live 2gether but if you want to have more than one, you need a HUGE thank. were talkin about 200 + gallons. a black rhom can become 20 inches plus. it becomes lazy and dosent relly offer a good show when hunting but is huge and looks relly mean.
 
Leg, may I correct you slightly there. It is very debatable at the moment with the social structure of rhoms. However what is known is they do not stick around together at all within close range, they are pretty much completely solitary. If you wanted to dare to attempt to keeping more than one … I personally think you would need 500 gallons per adult rhom with lots of dense planting to bloke view, to even stand a chance. But the issue is debatable.
 
leg89;675587; said:
not that blacks dont like to be 2gether. they're just more territorial and need way more space. in nature, blacks live 2gether but if you want to have more than one, you need a HUGE thank. were talkin about 200 + gallons. a black rhom can become 20 inches plus. it becomes lazy and dosent relly offer a good show when hunting but is huge and looks relly mean.

have you ever seen a 20"+ rhom, well of course not, becuase there has never been one in captivity over 18", and that was rare.

there is also many differences between the two fish mentioned, one is
that one is from the genus pygo, the other is a serra, and i has been arguded that serra's are not true piranhas

the blacks, do get to larger sizes, though take longer to get there, that's why the large ones are so expensive,

as mentioned from the little i read of this thread, the genus pygo, which red's belong to are schooling fish that is correct. but, in rare cases, some of the 23 species of serra have been known to cohbitate, but usally not for long, but this has never been that way with, blacks which are strickly solitary fish, there has never been in any size aquarium, a succesfull cohabitaion of rhombeus, hence that there has never been captive breeding among these fish, only wild offspring. there are many more difference, to list but i have nethier the time, nor patience to list everything.
 
Exactly right. Rhom's are Serrasalmus, must be kept alone, they don't shoal..Red bellies, onb the other hand, are Pygocentrus, real Piranhas..they are happiest in shoals, even with other pygos ( caribas or Pirayas )...Serasalmus grow much slower than pygos...
 
yes blacks do get quite larger than red bellies but they also take much longer to reach their size where as reds or any pygo species grow much faster than most if not all serrasalmus species
 
Very little serra's shoal...some guys have had a certain measure of sucess, I believe, with Spilopleuras...but not for ever, I believe
 
some time geryi's will shoal actually they are the only know species of serra to sometimes shoal but this is a sensetive procedure and should really only be attempted by someone with alot of knowhow and the extra room and a big fat wallet to accept probable losses
 
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